M’s have no answer for Jenks
CHICAGO – When Josh Fields sees Bobby Jenks enter the game, the rookie gets so excited he fires the ball to the closer. Then, he watches in awe.
While Jenks made history, Fields opened a few eyes on Friday night.
Fields hit two home runs, Jermaine Dye went deep and Juan Uribe doubled in the go-ahead run in the seventh as the Chicago White Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 5-3.
Jenks, a former Spirit Lake resident, pitched the ninth for his 33rd save in 38 chances. He has retired 38 straight batters, tying David Wells’ American League record set in 1998 with the New York Yankees. It’s the fourth-longest streak in major league history.
“He’s been getting on me lately because I’ve been firing the ball at him every time he comes in,” said Fields, the White Sox’s third baseman. “He gets me pumped up when he comes in, and you can tell on his face how focused he is. I don’t know what it is, but I just want to fire the ball at him and try to get him pumped up or something.”
Jenks did not make himself available to the media afterward because he did not want to discuss the streak, a team spokesman said, but his performance speaks volumes. Now, he’s three batters away from tying the record Jim Barr set for San Francisco in 1972.
“That’s unbelievable,” said starter Javier Vazquez, who improved to 7-1 in his last 10 starts. “That’s tough to do, especially in (that) situation.”
Tied at 3, the Mariners failed to capitalize after loading the bases with one out in the seventh and paid for it in the bottom half.
Dye led off with a single and came around on Uribe’s double off the wall in left, making it 4-3. Uribe advanced to third on the throw home and scored with two out on Darin Erstad’s triple to shallow center, the ball rolling by a diving Ichiro Suzuki.
That made a winner of Javier Vazquez (10-6), who has won at least 10 games in eight consecutive seasons. He allowed three runs and nine hits in seven innings, struck out three and allowed one intentional walk.
The Mariners had won nine of 12 and pounded out 49 hits while outscoring Baltimore 31-15 in a three-game sweep. But Friday Jarrod Washburn (8-9) suffered his second straight loss and third in six starts. He has not won since pitching eight shutout innings at Kansas City July 4.
He allowed seven hits and five runs in 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and walking two.
“The whole game I felt like I threw better than I have in quite a while,” Washburn said. “I’ve been struggling a little bit, not throwing the ball that great. For the most part, I thought I threw the ball real well today.”
Manager John McLaren said, “He had some crisp pitches, and he pitched well enough to win. He deserved a better fate than that.”
Dye homered in the second, and Fields went deep in the third and sixth for his first multihomer game.
Seattle’s Kenji Johjima and Raul Ibanez hit solo shots on this muggy 79-degree night. But the Mariners could not come through with the big hit in the seventh.
Jose Vidro sent a bouncer to Fields, and the third baseman clutched and fired home to force Johjima. Jose Guillen then grounded into a force to end the threat.
Seattle was leading 3-2 when Fields drove the first pitch of the sixth out to center for his second homer of the game and 11th of the season. Ichiro planted his left foot on the top of the fence in a vain, but spectacular, attempt to rob him and maybe atone for a strange play on the bases in the fifth.
Seattle had just taken a 3-2 lead on Vidro’s sacrifice fly with runners on first and third when Guillen sent a roller toward short. Uribe was winding to throw to first when he noticed Ichiro had rounded second. He stopped, flipped to third and Fields tagged out Ichiro in a rundown.
Ichiro was 1 for 3 after getting three hits in each of his previous three games. Ibanez had three hits.
Dye and Fields had two hits for Chicago. Scott Podsednik, whose time with the White Sox may be winding down, was 1 for 2.
The Chicago Tribune, citing a major league source, reported on its Web site that the Cubs had put in a claim for him off waivers. The White Sox had two business days to work out a trade with the Cubs, simply let him go to the North Side team or pull him off waivers.
Notes
Mariners outfielder Jose Guillen was back in the lineup after being hit on his right hand by a pitch and robbed Jim Thome of an extra-base hit in the first with a leaping catch against the wall. … The game lasted just 2 hours, 36 minutes.